Hot filling after pasteurizing, e.g. in a short-time heater, is an established method for filling drinks into bottles or bags in a preserved or durable condition. The untreated drink is preheated, degassed and then pasteurized as a rule. After the filling process, e.g. at 85° C., the filled bottles are cooled in a bottle cooling device with the help of a coolant stream, e.g. by way of spraying, to a temperature of e.g. 30° C. that is suited for further processing.
It is known from T. Herty: Molchbare Pasteuranlage mit kontinuierlicher Vakuumentgasung, Flüssiges Obst, 8/2002, 508-510 that during the hot filling of drinks, particularly at a standstill of the bottle filler, already pasteurized liquid is cooled in a recooler and is admixed again via a buffer to the untreated liquid.
It is moreover known from DE 10 2005 053 005 A1 that hot-filled beverage bags are cooled by a coolant stream and the coolant stream is circulated such that the absorbed heat is again discharged to the drink to be heated.
The heat withdrawn from the filled bottles or bags is e.g. passed into a heat exchanger for preheating the liquid to be treated. By contrast, the heat withdrawn during recooling of the liquid that has not been filled is disposed off in known hot filling systems in a cooling tower and represents an energy loss. This must also be taken into account during failure-free normal operation when a specific portion of the heated liquid that has not been filled yet is recooled and again admixed to the untreated liquid so as to stabilize the operation of the system.